The full text of Maithripala Sirisena's election manifesto which was released this morning at Viharamahadevi Open Air Theatre;
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Raging floods in six districts: 40,000 displaced
Raging floods in six districts: 40,000 displaced, transport hampered
The eastern district of Batticaloa was the worst hit with more than 30,000 people displaced. The AGA divisions of Kiran, Valaichchenei and Morakotanchenai suffered the most damage.Government Agents of these districts have obtained the assistance of disaster management officials and the military, especially the Navy, to evacuate people. Pilgrims and residents of the sacred city of Anuradhapura are being immediately evacuated as tanks in the district are at spill level.
Anuradhapura District Secretary Mahinda Seneviratne said more than 3,000 wevas, including the 29 big wevas and 83 medium ones, had reached spill level and families in the areas were evacuated. “The safety of pilgrims and foreign visitors is being given priority. They have been evacuated from hotels near major tanks while pilgrims were removed from the sacred city,” he said.
According to Mr. Seneviratne, about 9,000 displaced people from Rajanganaya, Galenbindunuwewa, Thalawa and Anuradhapura AGA divisions have been settled in 20 welfare centres with meals provided. As a result of Malwathuoya bursting its banks, several areas of the Anuradhapura city have come under water with the prison complex also being affected by the floods.
In the Mannar District more than 400 people have been evacuated to welfare centres, the Disaster Management Centre said. DMC Spokesman Sarath Lal Kumara said pilgrims who were stranded at the holy site of Somawathiya in Polonnaruwa district were also rescued with the assistance of the Navy. Kinniya in Trincomalee has also been badly hit by the floods.
North Central, Eastern, Northern, Uva and Central provinces are experiencing heavy showers with increasing flood and landslide threats. The National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) yesterday warned residents in the Matale, Kandy, Badulla and Nuwara Eliya districts of possible landslides if the rain continued.
Met Department Forecaster Jeewan Karunaratne said a disturbance in the upper atmosphere had activated the north-east monsoon.“We are expecting heavy rains in the coming weeks as atmospheric disturbances are occurring in a wave pattern,” he said.
The floods have also hampered road and railway transport services. Last night’s mail trains from Colombo Fort to Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Jaffna were cancelled after the tracks came under water at several places.
Raging flood waters that hit the districts of Batticaloa, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Puttalam, Trincomalee and Mannar yesterday left more than 40,000 people displaced; road transportation crippled and hundreds of acres of paddy land inundated.
The eastern district of Batticaloa was the worst hit with more than 30,000 people displaced. The AGA divisions of Kiran, Valaichchenei and Morakotanchenai suffered the most damage.Government Agents of these districts have obtained the assistance of disaster management officials and the military, especially the Navy, to evacuate people. Pilgrims and residents of the sacred city of Anuradhapura are being immediately evacuated as tanks in the district are at spill level.
Anuradhapura District Secretary Mahinda Seneviratne said more than 3,000 wevas, including the 29 big wevas and 83 medium ones, had reached spill level and families in the areas were evacuated. “The safety of pilgrims and foreign visitors is being given priority. They have been evacuated from hotels near major tanks while pilgrims were removed from the sacred city,” he said.
According to Mr. Seneviratne, about 9,000 displaced people from Rajanganaya, Galenbindunuwewa, Thalawa and Anuradhapura AGA divisions have been settled in 20 welfare centres with meals provided. As a result of Malwathuoya bursting its banks, several areas of the Anuradhapura city have come under water with the prison complex also being affected by the floods.
In the Mannar District more than 400 people have been evacuated to welfare centres, the Disaster Management Centre said. DMC Spokesman Sarath Lal Kumara said pilgrims who were stranded at the holy site of Somawathiya in Polonnaruwa district were also rescued with the assistance of the Navy. Kinniya in Trincomalee has also been badly hit by the floods.
North Central, Eastern, Northern, Uva and Central provinces are experiencing heavy showers with increasing flood and landslide threats. The National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) yesterday warned residents in the Matale, Kandy, Badulla and Nuwara Eliya districts of possible landslides if the rain continued.
Met Department Forecaster Jeewan Karunaratne said a disturbance in the upper atmosphere had activated the north-east monsoon.“We are expecting heavy rains in the coming weeks as atmospheric disturbances are occurring in a wave pattern,” he said.
The floods have also hampered road and railway transport services. Last night’s mail trains from Colombo Fort to Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Jaffna were cancelled after the tracks came under water at several places.
PFLP: Draft UN resolution of “French initiative” threatens Palestinian rights
PFLP: Draft UN resolution of “French initiative” threatens Palestinian rights
Dec 19 2014
The draft resolution before the UN Security Council provides no enforcement mechanisms nor penalties upon the occupying power for its continued flagrant violation of international law, occupation, imposition of apartheid and denial of Palestinian refugees’ fundamental rights for the past 66 years. On the contrary, unlike the resolutions which the Security Council has so eagerly passed against Iraq, Syria, Sudan and other countries, it contains no requirements, mandates or penalties whatsoever but rather presents a false view of the “conflict” as one between equal parties with legitimate rights and interests.
In no way does this resolution mandate the creation of a Palestinian state within 12 months; it simply “affirms the urgent need” to “attain no later than 12 months…a just lasting comprehensive peaceful solution that brings an end to the Israeli occupation since 1967 and fulfills the vision of two independent, democratic and prosperous states, Israel and a sovereign, contiguous and viable State of Palestine living side by side in peace and security within mutually and internationally recognized borders.”
In the context of the United Nations, this merely reiterates existing UN policy demanding an end to the Israeli occupation in violation of UN resolutions and international law. “Affirming an urgent need” creates no requirement or mandate to implement this desire, nor does it provide any penalties to the Israeli state for refusing to end its occupation.
The most damaging and dangerous part of the resolution, however, comes in its definition of the “negotiated solution,” where it recognizes the principles of “mutually agreed, limited and equivalent land swaps;” Palestinian land is entirely occupied. It is not to be bartered with the occupier to legitimize its settlements on our land or allow it to transfer Palestinians of 1948 occupied Palestine to the so-called Palestinian state.
Second, and most importantly, the draft resolution seeks to replace the cornerstone of UN resolutions on Palestinian refugees’ inalienable right to return, denied them for over 66 years, Resolution 194, with “a just and agreed solution to the Palestine refugee question on the basis of Arab Peace Initiative, international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, including resolution 194 (III).” The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has always rejected the so-called Arab Peace Initiative and all similar initiatives, as they seek to replace the individual, national and collective right of return of the Palestinian refugees with a “negotiated solution” that puts that right on the negotiating table to be sold or bargained away.
The inclusion of this clause within the UN draft resolution renders it a threat to Palestinian rights under the guise of support for “Palestinian statehood,” and a damaging attack and attempt to liquidate the undeniable right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes and lands, the cornerstone of the Palestinian cause and the key to the liberation and self-determination of our people. Palestinian refugees are in fact the majority of the Palestinian people – and their rights and those of all other Palestinians are only endangered by this resolution.
The resolution does not recognize Jerusalem as occupied, but only notes it to be “the shared capital of two States.” It provides the longest paragraph in this section for “security arrangements,” labeling the occupation army “security forces,” and viewing the occupation and colonization of Palestine as a security issue rather than one of anti-colonial struggle against a colonizing occupier.
Furthermore, the resolution lags far behind existing UN resolutions: it does not demand an end to the construction of colonial settlements but merely “calls upon…parties to abstain from..settlement activities.” Nowhere does the draft resolution mandate the dismantlement of settlements; rather it promotes “land swaps” and leaves the issue of settlers entirely aside.
The resolution seeks as well to demand Arab normalization with Israel and states that the above “final status agreement” will put an “end to all claims” and lead to “immediate mutual recognition.” Above all, it situates the Palestinian struggle within a framework of negotiations, which have done nothing more over more than 20 years than to provide cover for the crimes of the occupation and the dismantlement of Palestinian rights.
The Zionist state is built on the dispossession of Palestinian land and the displacement of Palestinian people. It is an apartheid, racist, settler colonial state. It divides the Arab people for the interests of imperialism and it is a project that has no place in our region. We do not recognize a colonial racist state; its racist structure must be dismantled. In no way is the achievement of the Palestinian state on one part of Palestine an “end of all claims.” The Palestinian people do not concede their full right of return; the right of our Palestinian people inside 1948 to live free, self-determined lives free of racism and discrimination; and the right to liberate the entire land of Palestine.
The Palestinian struggle is one for liberation of our people and our land from a brutal, genocidal colonial regime. It is for the return of Palestinian refugees, it is for the exercise of the sovereignty and self-determination of the Palestinian people on all of their land. It is not a conflict between equal parties, it is a struggle between the colonized and the colonizer, between the oppressed and the oppressor. It is the fight to establish a democratic Palestine for all on the entire land of Palestine, liberated from occupation, racism and oppression.
The “two state solution” has not been a mechanism to gradually achieve Palestinian rights, nor even any real Palestinian sovereignty; rather, the “state-building initiatives” referred to positively in the draft resolution have supported capitalist investment and exploitation at the expense of the Palestinian popular classes, who have not benefitted from such funding. There is no liberation for any part of Palestine or its people envisioned by this resolution: only the continuation of the endless series of negotiations chipping away at Palestinian rights while the occupier continues to attack and destroy.
Centrally, this draft resolution is an effort to undermine the right of return and enshrine the bankrupt negotiations process in a resolution of the UN Security Council, replacing the right of return with “negotiated solutions,” and UN resolutions affirming Palestinian rights with those affirming the path of negotiations.
The PFLP spokesperson called upon Palestinian and Arab communities in France and French supporters and friends of Palestine to reject the role of the French imperialist state in attempting to redefine and undermine the Palestinian cause. The French state has no legitimacy on the issue of Palestine and has provided no support for Palestinian rights. Rather, it has attempted to legitimize the constant Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people while imprisoning strugglers for Palestine such as Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and suppressing demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine in Paris.
This draft resolution is widely rejected by Palestinian political forces who have repeatedly pointed out the threats and dangers within it. It is supported only by a few Palestinian capitalists who seek to profit and Palestinian Authority officials. Once again, the Palestinian political decision has been hijacked by Abbas and his cronies to the detriment of the Palestinian people.
The fact that the Israelis reject this draft resolution and the United States has expressed its “lack of support” means only that Zionism and imperialism in the region are not willing to concede even a few crumbs to the Palestinian people. Much like Netanyahu’s rejection of the Oslo process, the flagrant racism and genocidal discourse of the Israeli state does not make the draft resolution a step forward for Palestinian rights and liberation.
“We unequivocally reject this attack on Palestinian rights under the guise of ‘Palestinian statehood’ and urge its rejection by all responsible Palestinian parties as unrepresentative and dangerous to the rights and the cause of the Palestinian people for which so many martyrs, wounded and prisoners have given their lives,” said the PFLP spokesperson.
Dec 19 2014
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine unequivocally rejects the so-called “French Initative” being sponsored at the United Nations by the Jordanian regime as a dangerous threat to Palestinian refugees’ right of return that undermines Palestinian rights in the United Nations under the guise of support for a “Palestinian state,” said a spokesperson for the Front.
The draft resolution before the UN Security Council provides no enforcement mechanisms nor penalties upon the occupying power for its continued flagrant violation of international law, occupation, imposition of apartheid and denial of Palestinian refugees’ fundamental rights for the past 66 years. On the contrary, unlike the resolutions which the Security Council has so eagerly passed against Iraq, Syria, Sudan and other countries, it contains no requirements, mandates or penalties whatsoever but rather presents a false view of the “conflict” as one between equal parties with legitimate rights and interests.
In no way does this resolution mandate the creation of a Palestinian state within 12 months; it simply “affirms the urgent need” to “attain no later than 12 months…a just lasting comprehensive peaceful solution that brings an end to the Israeli occupation since 1967 and fulfills the vision of two independent, democratic and prosperous states, Israel and a sovereign, contiguous and viable State of Palestine living side by side in peace and security within mutually and internationally recognized borders.”
In the context of the United Nations, this merely reiterates existing UN policy demanding an end to the Israeli occupation in violation of UN resolutions and international law. “Affirming an urgent need” creates no requirement or mandate to implement this desire, nor does it provide any penalties to the Israeli state for refusing to end its occupation.
The most damaging and dangerous part of the resolution, however, comes in its definition of the “negotiated solution,” where it recognizes the principles of “mutually agreed, limited and equivalent land swaps;” Palestinian land is entirely occupied. It is not to be bartered with the occupier to legitimize its settlements on our land or allow it to transfer Palestinians of 1948 occupied Palestine to the so-called Palestinian state.
Second, and most importantly, the draft resolution seeks to replace the cornerstone of UN resolutions on Palestinian refugees’ inalienable right to return, denied them for over 66 years, Resolution 194, with “a just and agreed solution to the Palestine refugee question on the basis of Arab Peace Initiative, international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, including resolution 194 (III).” The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has always rejected the so-called Arab Peace Initiative and all similar initiatives, as they seek to replace the individual, national and collective right of return of the Palestinian refugees with a “negotiated solution” that puts that right on the negotiating table to be sold or bargained away.
The inclusion of this clause within the UN draft resolution renders it a threat to Palestinian rights under the guise of support for “Palestinian statehood,” and a damaging attack and attempt to liquidate the undeniable right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes and lands, the cornerstone of the Palestinian cause and the key to the liberation and self-determination of our people. Palestinian refugees are in fact the majority of the Palestinian people – and their rights and those of all other Palestinians are only endangered by this resolution.
The resolution does not recognize Jerusalem as occupied, but only notes it to be “the shared capital of two States.” It provides the longest paragraph in this section for “security arrangements,” labeling the occupation army “security forces,” and viewing the occupation and colonization of Palestine as a security issue rather than one of anti-colonial struggle against a colonizing occupier.
Furthermore, the resolution lags far behind existing UN resolutions: it does not demand an end to the construction of colonial settlements but merely “calls upon…parties to abstain from..settlement activities.” Nowhere does the draft resolution mandate the dismantlement of settlements; rather it promotes “land swaps” and leaves the issue of settlers entirely aside.
The resolution seeks as well to demand Arab normalization with Israel and states that the above “final status agreement” will put an “end to all claims” and lead to “immediate mutual recognition.” Above all, it situates the Palestinian struggle within a framework of negotiations, which have done nothing more over more than 20 years than to provide cover for the crimes of the occupation and the dismantlement of Palestinian rights.
The Zionist state is built on the dispossession of Palestinian land and the displacement of Palestinian people. It is an apartheid, racist, settler colonial state. It divides the Arab people for the interests of imperialism and it is a project that has no place in our region. We do not recognize a colonial racist state; its racist structure must be dismantled. In no way is the achievement of the Palestinian state on one part of Palestine an “end of all claims.” The Palestinian people do not concede their full right of return; the right of our Palestinian people inside 1948 to live free, self-determined lives free of racism and discrimination; and the right to liberate the entire land of Palestine.
The Palestinian struggle is one for liberation of our people and our land from a brutal, genocidal colonial regime. It is for the return of Palestinian refugees, it is for the exercise of the sovereignty and self-determination of the Palestinian people on all of their land. It is not a conflict between equal parties, it is a struggle between the colonized and the colonizer, between the oppressed and the oppressor. It is the fight to establish a democratic Palestine for all on the entire land of Palestine, liberated from occupation, racism and oppression.
The “two state solution” has not been a mechanism to gradually achieve Palestinian rights, nor even any real Palestinian sovereignty; rather, the “state-building initiatives” referred to positively in the draft resolution have supported capitalist investment and exploitation at the expense of the Palestinian popular classes, who have not benefitted from such funding. There is no liberation for any part of Palestine or its people envisioned by this resolution: only the continuation of the endless series of negotiations chipping away at Palestinian rights while the occupier continues to attack and destroy.
Centrally, this draft resolution is an effort to undermine the right of return and enshrine the bankrupt negotiations process in a resolution of the UN Security Council, replacing the right of return with “negotiated solutions,” and UN resolutions affirming Palestinian rights with those affirming the path of negotiations.
The PFLP spokesperson called upon Palestinian and Arab communities in France and French supporters and friends of Palestine to reject the role of the French imperialist state in attempting to redefine and undermine the Palestinian cause. The French state has no legitimacy on the issue of Palestine and has provided no support for Palestinian rights. Rather, it has attempted to legitimize the constant Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people while imprisoning strugglers for Palestine such as Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and suppressing demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine in Paris.
This draft resolution is widely rejected by Palestinian political forces who have repeatedly pointed out the threats and dangers within it. It is supported only by a few Palestinian capitalists who seek to profit and Palestinian Authority officials. Once again, the Palestinian political decision has been hijacked by Abbas and his cronies to the detriment of the Palestinian people.
The fact that the Israelis reject this draft resolution and the United States has expressed its “lack of support” means only that Zionism and imperialism in the region are not willing to concede even a few crumbs to the Palestinian people. Much like Netanyahu’s rejection of the Oslo process, the flagrant racism and genocidal discourse of the Israeli state does not make the draft resolution a step forward for Palestinian rights and liberation.
“We unequivocally reject this attack on Palestinian rights under the guise of ‘Palestinian statehood’ and urge its rejection by all responsible Palestinian parties as unrepresentative and dangerous to the rights and the cause of the Palestinian people for which so many martyrs, wounded and prisoners have given their lives,” said the PFLP spokesperson.
மன்னிப்புச்சபையும், மந்திரிகள் அவையும் பிணந்தின்னிகளுக்கு பிற்பாட்டுப்பாடவே பிறந்தவைகள்!
மன்னிப்புச்சபையும், மந்திரிகள் அவையும் பிணந்தின்னிகளுக்கு பிற்பாட்டுப்பாடவே பிறந்தவர்கள்!
அவர்களிடமிருந்து எமக்கு அவல் பொரியும் கிடையாது!!
பிரபாகரனின் மெய்க் காவலர், தமிழ்ச் செல்வன் படுகொலைக்கு உதவினார் - விக்கி லீக்ஸ்
VP’s man helped kill T’chelvam
By admin
December 20, 2014 08:36
The CIA report notes that the LTTE became one of the world’s most ruthless and resourceful ethnonationalist insurgent movements, fighting the Sri Lankan Government to a stalemate that led to a cease-fire in 2002. It said that the LTTE used the lapse in fighting to rearm and train, resuming hostilities in mid-2004. In response, the government had stepped up efforts to target top LTTE leadership.
“The Sri Lankan Air Force, in November 2007 and January 2008, used antibunker bombs to target Prabhakaran and other top LTTE leaders, according to a clandestine source claiming firsthand access. Geocoordinate information provided by a former bodyguard of Prabhakaran’s contributed to an accurate Sri Lankan military bombing raid that killed LTTE political spokesman S.P. Tamilchelvan and other LTTE leaders on 2 November 2007, according to a clandestine source with whom a relationship was just beginning. The Sri Lankan Government claimed to have killed Prabhakaran and most of the LTTE’s senior leadership in conventional military operations in April and May 2009, according to a US military report and a Western press report,” the leaked CIA report said.
According to WikiLeaks, the secret CIA document assessed high-value targeting (HVT) programs world-wide for their impact on insurgencies. The document is classified SECRET//NOFORN (no foreign nationals) and is for internal use to review the positive and negative implications of targeted assassinations on these groups for the strength of the group post the attack.
The document assesses attacks on insurgent groups by the United States and other countries within Afghanistan, Algeria, Colombia, Iraq, Israel, Peru, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand. The document, which is “pro-assassination”, was completed in July 2009 and coincides with the first year of the Obama administration and Leon Panetta’s directorship of the CIA during which the United States very significantly increased its CIA assassination program at the expense of capture operations. It produces a chart for US officials to use in strategically assessing future operations and methods in HVT assassinations. (Colombo Gazette)
By admin
December 20, 2014 08:36
Geocoordinate information provided by a former bodyguard of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran (VP) contributed to an accurate Sri Lankan military bombing raid that killed LTTE political spokesman S.P. Thamilchelvan and other LTTE leaders, on 2nd November 2007, a WikiLeaks document has revealed.The document contains information from a classified report of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), one of the principal intelligence-gathering agencies of the United States.
The CIA report notes that the LTTE became one of the world’s most ruthless and resourceful ethnonationalist insurgent movements, fighting the Sri Lankan Government to a stalemate that led to a cease-fire in 2002. It said that the LTTE used the lapse in fighting to rearm and train, resuming hostilities in mid-2004. In response, the government had stepped up efforts to target top LTTE leadership.
“The Sri Lankan Air Force, in November 2007 and January 2008, used antibunker bombs to target Prabhakaran and other top LTTE leaders, according to a clandestine source claiming firsthand access. Geocoordinate information provided by a former bodyguard of Prabhakaran’s contributed to an accurate Sri Lankan military bombing raid that killed LTTE political spokesman S.P. Tamilchelvan and other LTTE leaders on 2 November 2007, according to a clandestine source with whom a relationship was just beginning. The Sri Lankan Government claimed to have killed Prabhakaran and most of the LTTE’s senior leadership in conventional military operations in April and May 2009, according to a US military report and a Western press report,” the leaked CIA report said.
According to WikiLeaks, the secret CIA document assessed high-value targeting (HVT) programs world-wide for their impact on insurgencies. The document is classified SECRET//NOFORN (no foreign nationals) and is for internal use to review the positive and negative implications of targeted assassinations on these groups for the strength of the group post the attack.
The document assesses attacks on insurgent groups by the United States and other countries within Afghanistan, Algeria, Colombia, Iraq, Israel, Peru, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand. The document, which is “pro-assassination”, was completed in July 2009 and coincides with the first year of the Obama administration and Leon Panetta’s directorship of the CIA during which the United States very significantly increased its CIA assassination program at the expense of capture operations. It produces a chart for US officials to use in strategically assessing future operations and methods in HVT assassinations. (Colombo Gazette)
The Key Role Pope Francis Played In Ending The US Split With Cuba
The Key Role Pope Francis Played In Ending The US Split With Cuba
By CATHERINE THOMPSON
Published DECEMBER 17, 2014, 1:30 PM
Pope Francis, the first Latin-American pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church, played a key role in another history-making endeavor to end the longstanding rift between the United States and Cuba.
The White House announced Wednesday that the two countries would re-establish diplomatic relations, after Cuba released American contractor Alan Gross in exchange for three Cubans jailed in the U.S. and accused of spying.
The thaw between the U.S. and Cuban governments began in spring 2013, when President Barack Obama authorized high-level talks between the two nations. A senior administration official told reporters that Cuba had been a top topic of conversation when Obama and Francis met in person earlier this year. Then the Vatican hosted the U.S.-Cuba delegations this fall, after Francis had asked them to "pursue closer relations," the official said.
The official noted that the support of the pope was important, given Francis' history within the Catholic church in Latin America. Much of the Cuban population is at least nominally Roman Catholic.
Obama confirmed Francis' outreach later Wednesday in a press conference at the White House.
"His holiness Pope Francis issued a personal appeal to me and to Cuba's president, Raúl Castro, urging us to resolve Alan's case and to address Cuba's interest in the release of three Cuban agents who've been jailed in the U.S. for over 15 years," Obama said.
Gross' wife, Judy, had been pleading her husband's case to the Vatican as far back as spring 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI still led the church.
"I have one hope left, and that’s, of course, the pope,” she told the Washington Post at the time. “If that doesn’t work, I think he’ll probably die in Cuban prison.”
The Vatican congratulated the U.S. and Cuban governments Wednesday and acknowledged the role it played in securing the groundbreaking agreement.
"The Holy See received Delegations of the two countries in the Vatican last October and provided its good offices to facilitate a constructive dialogue on delicate matters, resulting in solutions acceptable to both Parties," the Vatican said in a statement. "The Holy See will continue to assure its support for initiatives which both nations will undertake to strengthen their bilateral relations and promote the wellbeing of their respective citizens."
Dylan Scott contributed to this report.The Guardian
 |
| ENB File Foto |
Published DECEMBER 17, 2014, 1:30 PM
Pope Francis, the first Latin-American pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church, played a key role in another history-making endeavor to end the longstanding rift between the United States and Cuba.
The White House announced Wednesday that the two countries would re-establish diplomatic relations, after Cuba released American contractor Alan Gross in exchange for three Cubans jailed in the U.S. and accused of spying.
The thaw between the U.S. and Cuban governments began in spring 2013, when President Barack Obama authorized high-level talks between the two nations. A senior administration official told reporters that Cuba had been a top topic of conversation when Obama and Francis met in person earlier this year. Then the Vatican hosted the U.S.-Cuba delegations this fall, after Francis had asked them to "pursue closer relations," the official said.
The official noted that the support of the pope was important, given Francis' history within the Catholic church in Latin America. Much of the Cuban population is at least nominally Roman Catholic.
Obama confirmed Francis' outreach later Wednesday in a press conference at the White House.
"His holiness Pope Francis issued a personal appeal to me and to Cuba's president, Raúl Castro, urging us to resolve Alan's case and to address Cuba's interest in the release of three Cuban agents who've been jailed in the U.S. for over 15 years," Obama said.
Gross' wife, Judy, had been pleading her husband's case to the Vatican as far back as spring 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI still led the church.
"I have one hope left, and that’s, of course, the pope,” she told the Washington Post at the time. “If that doesn’t work, I think he’ll probably die in Cuban prison.”
The Vatican congratulated the U.S. and Cuban governments Wednesday and acknowledged the role it played in securing the groundbreaking agreement.
"The Holy See received Delegations of the two countries in the Vatican last October and provided its good offices to facilitate a constructive dialogue on delicate matters, resulting in solutions acceptable to both Parties," the Vatican said in a statement. "The Holy See will continue to assure its support for initiatives which both nations will undertake to strengthen their bilateral relations and promote the wellbeing of their respective citizens."
Dylan Scott contributed to this report.The Guardian
Sluice gates Opened
Sluice gates Opened
BY UMESH MORAMUDALI
Ceylon today, 2014-12-20 02:00:00
The Director of the Water Management Unit of the Irrigation Department, Janaki Meegastenna stated the sluice gates of 16 reservoirs in three districts had to be opened due to the increase in water levels caused by heavy rains.
Meegastenna also told Ceylon Today that the sluice gates of several tanks in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee districts too were opened and the sluice gates of many more tanks will have to be opened soon as the water level increases.
She also added that there are 73 tanks and reservoirs under the purview of the Water Management Unit of the Irrigation Department and out of which 27 had reached the spill levels and the sluice gates had to be opened.
Accordingly, sluice gates of Kantale, Nachchaduwa, Mahakanadara, Nuwara Wewa, Parakrama Samudraya were also opened.Meegastenna had noted, the average water level of the tanks had increased to 69% from the total capacity adding that the water stored in the tanks would be sufficient to carry out cultivations in Yala season.
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India, Sri Lanka head to a win-win relationship
India, Sri Lanka head to a win-win relationship 《 Asian Age 17 Dec 2024 》 All the signs are pointing to the possibility of a major win for...
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தமிழகம் வாழ் ஈழத்தமிழர்களை கழகக் கண்டனப் பொதுக்கூட்டத்தில் கலந்து கொள்ளக் கோருகின்றோம்! -
சமரன்: தோழர்கள் மீது எடப்பாடி கொலை வெறித்தாக்குதல், கழகம்...
